NINETEEN
The Temple of Shangdi was filled to overflowing. A sea of white it seemed the temple was as nobles, soldiers, and citizens alike crammed themselves into every available space, and still more jostled to come in. The temple rose up and out from a large circular floor, three levels of tiers and balconies full of seats where people could come to watch and pray and mourn. The balconies were filled, but the floor was not. The dark marble stones shone brightly and reflected the fluttering flames of the numerous torches burning on wall sconces from all three levels. The city guard were decked out in white for the occasion, each holding a large dagger-axe on poles that stretched higher than they did. Together they’d created a circle around the large central dais where Duke Dao’s body was to lay and all the way to the large double-door entrance. The dais was empty, and all in attendance looked eagerly toward the doors, waiting.
“It shouldn’t be much longer now,” Pai Fen said to Dao An on his left. “Su Xiong has already entered the city.”
“And Wu Qi?” Dao asked.
“Following behind Su. Both should be here.”
“Let us hope so,” Fei Lin said. The Daoist had traded his simple brown robes for even simpler white for the occasion. “Your plan will be for naught otherwise.”
“He’ll be here,” Pai said.
The Hall was filled with the quite hum of hushed conversation. Nobles made up a large portion of the crowd, but not as large as they once would have before Wu Qi’s reforms sent most of them from the capital. Still, many had made the journey once they had learned of their duke’s death, and they numbered near two hundred. An even larger group was the various bureaucrats of the city. Two days of mourning had been declared once word had gotten back of the battle, and all government offices had been closed. Many came to pay their respects to the man they had once worked for, but more had come thinking their attendance would further their advancement in whichever department they served. By far the largest group, however, were common citizens and peasants. Only those wearing white had been allowed into the Hall, but the common people had never been known for their cleanliness; their robes were more often faded and even stained, giving the shifting sea of people on the lower level and ground floor a motley appearance of spoiled milk and even worse. Still, none could doubt their devotion, and of the hundreds in the Hall, only they had eyes stained with tears.
For every one person in attendance in the Hall there were five people clamoring outside. The streets around the temple teemed with people, most from the cities, but many from the surrounding towns and villages. Hundreds had begun lining the funeral route the day before, their only hope being to catch a glimpse of their fallen ruler’s body as it entered the temple. Their voices were loud, and even the thick wooden walls of the temple could not keep the sounds at bay.
Those sounds suddenly stopped, a palpable thing that all inside noticed at once, and which could only mean one thing: Duke Dao had arrived. Several minutes of tense silence followed as all conversations ceased. All in the Hall peered down anxiously at the Temple’s entrance.
Suddenly the doors were thrown open, and all within could see that it had started raining outside, something none of them had noticed over the hum within and cacophony without. The white-robed city guards lifted and then slammed the butts of their dagger-axes onto the marble floor, once, twice, then three times, the sound deafening in the cavernous temple, and the silence that followed even more so.
“It begins,” Pai whispered to the two men beside him.
TWENTY
Wu was thankful that the long line of chariots had separated into two columns before they came to a stop, leaving the street empty between them. He cracked the reins to give his horses and extra burst of speed and was soon rushing between them; the dozen chariots that had ridden with him from the battlefield still close behind. Ahead loomed the large three-tiered Temple of Shangdi, one of the tallest structures in that area of the city. Wu had walked by it many times, even stopping to gaze up at it in thought for hours at a time when he had first arrived in the city, but on this day he gave it’s beauty little thought. Inside hundreds waited to mourn their ruler, but he knew that several might have different ideas.
He reached the end of the line of chariots and pulled to a stop still several dozen yards from the temple. Su Xiong’s chariot had stopped close to the doors and he could see several soldiers and Su himself lifting Duke Dao’s body up out of the chariot and onto a white-draped carrying platform. Su took the lead position and he and five other men hoisted the platform up onto their shoulders and disappeared inside the temple. Wu handed the reins to the soldier next to him and hopped off of the chariot. He glanced down at his sword laying on the floor of the car, but shook his head. It would be out of place to bring a weapon into the temple, even if some were already there in his enemy’s hands. Several of the soldiers that had accompanied him from the battlefield fell in behind him and he nodded back at them as he walked toward the Temple entrance. They represented the men that had fought and died with Duke Dao; they deserved a place at the funeral.
No one tried to stop them as they made their way toward the doors. White-clad city guards held back the crowd, although most of the citizens and peasants in attendance just looked on with blank faces and tears in their eyes. They had gotten their glimpse of their ruler’s body, but still they remained.
As Wu stepped through the large double-doors he was struck by the sheer amount of people within. Hundreds filled the floor; common peasants all dressed in their best and cleanest white robes, while the balconies above held bureaucrats and nobles. The central floor was bare, however, a long line of city guards holding the people at bay, their dagger-axes reflecting the torchlight.
Ahead of him Su Xiong and the five other men were already laying Duke Dao’s body onto the large central dais. The soldiers backed away when the body was down, but Su remained standing next to his father. He began reaching into his robes for something that Wu couldn’t’ see.
Suddenly a crossbow quarrel struck the duke’s lifeless body. A few gasps came from the crowd, but most hadn’t noticed, although Su did. He took a step back just as another bolt came down right where he had been standing. It clattered harmlessly off the marble floor. Many more took notice of that second bolt, and the crowded Hall erupted. The peasants on the ground level rushed the white-clad guards in their eagerness to get to the doors, and the guards could do little to hold them back. On the higher levels, too, men stood up and began rushing toward the stairs that would take them down to the sole exit from the temple. All the while more and more crossbow bolts rained down.
Wu charged toward the central dais, his eyes drawn upward into the higher levels, but he could see no one with a crossbow at hand. No doubt whoever it was had gone to great pains to conceal their weapons, but the amount of bolts raining down indicated that there had to be at least a dozen attackers.
Su’s soldiers had rushed back to the dais after the first few bolts and they did their best to shield him. It would be nearly impossible to get him out of the temple with the frightened crowd rushing the doors. All they could do was sit and wait. None of them had bows or crossbows of their own, not even swords; they were helpless to make any kind of counterattack, even if they knew who it was that was attacking.
Wu punched and kicked and threw peasants out of the way in his rush to get to the dais. Thankfully the doors to the temple were tall and wide and already the floor was emptying. Most of the city guards around him had stopped trying to corral the peasants and instead began rushing toward the two staircases that led up opposite sides of the temple walls to the levels above. Men were rushing down those same stairs, however, and Wu knew that it would be several more minutes before any of them reached the second level, and several minutes more before the third, where most of the attacks were probably coming from.
The crossbow bolts continued to rain down and Wu saw several of them sprouting from Dao’s lifeless body. Several more were sticking from the g
uards covering Su. At least one of the men that had rushed to protect the next duke was already lying on the floor dead. When Wu finally arrived at the dais, several more looked like they would quickly join him.
“Sire!” Wu called out. “Sire, we have to close the doors!”
“What!” Su’s desperate voice cried out from under three of his guards. “Close the doors? We have to get out the doors.”
“Sire, if we close the doors then the attackers will be trapped inside. We’ll know who did this.”
“Get me to the doors!” Su yelled in response.
“We can close the doors once the heir is safe,” one of the guards said to Wu in a calmer voice.
Wu nodded. “To the doors then.”
The guards rose from the floor and huddled around Su. One man quickly went down with two crossbow bolts in his back, and Wu jumped to take up his spot. They were moving quickly toward the doors, but the bolts continued to rain down. Another guard was struck, once, then twice, and then he was down. They had only gone a few more steps when another suffered the same fate. Only three guards and Wu remained and they still had two dozen yards to go before they reached the doors.
“We’re almost there, we-”
Wu was cut off as a crossbow bolt slammed into the small of his back. He wrenched his arm back to pull it out when another struck him between the shoulders. He gritted his teeth in pain. Only a few more yards, he thought as his vision began to cloud. Then another bolt took him in the leg and he was somehow on his stomach on the floor. The guards left him there, the two that remained around Su, as they wrestled the next Duke of Chu toward the doors. Wu smiled slightly as he saw them reach the doors, and then he heard footsteps near his head. He tried to turn and look but another sharp pain erupted from his back and everything went black.
TWENTY-ONE
Pai Fen rushed down the stairs, taking them two at a time when he could, pushing and shoving those in his way when he couldn’t. Already he was down to the first level and had but one flight remaining before he was on the ground floor. Behind him Dao An and Fei Lin cursed as they shoved past men trying to fill into the gap left in Pai’s wake, so fast was he moving.
Already several of the guards around Su were down, but several more remained, and now Wu Qi was at the dais. He was gesturing frantically toward the doors, and a few moments later the guards and Su were on their feet and moving away from the unprotected and toward the safety of the doors.
Pai frowned and pushed a peasant out of his way. He had only to get down a few more stairs and he’d be on the floor. But would his crossbow men have finished their task by then? Wu Qi was still alive, as was Su. If it was guards he had wanted killed he could have done so with a much lower risk and cost. As he watched Wu Qi and the guards shuffle closer to the doors he realized that if he wanted things done right he would have to do them himself.
He jumped down the last few stairs, knocking a peasant to the ground in front of him, and looked up just in time to see Wu Qi take a bolt in the back. Another quickly followed, but still the man pushed on.
He’s determined, I’ll give him that much, Pai thought as he watched the man struggle to continue. He rushed out onto the floor just as another bolt struck Wu, this time in the leg. That was it, the man went down. Bolts continued to rain down on the other two guards and Su, but none were finding their mark, and Pai didn’t think they would. Only a few yards separated them from the door, and unless some miracle happened they would escape. The same couldn’t be said for Wu Qi, however. Pai stepped up to the man and pulled a dagger from inside his robes. Wu tried to turn his head at the sound of him, but Pai didn’t give him the chance. With one quick thrust he drove the dagger down into Wu’s back and saw his body shudder, then go still.
Now, if I can just get to Su, he thought. He pulled the dagger free and wiped it on Wu’s robes. But it was too late, he saw; Su was already out of the temple and wet from the pouring rain. There would be other opportunities, Pai thought as he put the dagger back into his robes and rushed to the doors.
“Sire, Sire,” he called as he came out into the rain. “Are you hurt?”
Su looked up at him as he came out and shook his head, still dazed. “I’m unharmed.”
“Oh, praise Shangdi!” Pai shouted. “When I saw Wu go down behind you I wasn’t sure you were alright.”
Su’s brows knitted and he looked about him. “Wu is not here?”
“He was struck several times and went down,” one of the remaining guards said.
Su looked thoughtful for a few moments, then looked back up at the temple, his eyes going up its circular walls all they way to the crenellations on top.
“How many remain inside?” he asked finally.
“Many of the guards that rushed up to the higher levels have already been shot down,” one of the city guards that had been near the door when they got outside replied. “People are still swarming out of there; any of them could be one of the attackers.”
“Close the doors immediately,” Su said.
“Sire, is that wise?” Pai asked, too quickly he immediately realized.
Su looked him up and down, his look cold and uncompromising, and Pai felt a ball of fear lodge in his throat.
“Was it wise to call this attack?” Su asked.
Pai had no trouble looking surprised. How could he know?
“What do you mean, Sire?”
Su put his arm to Pai’s back and began guiding him back toward the doors of the temple. “Was it me or Wu that you were after, Pai? Or did you think to take us both? You very nearly succeeded.”
“Sire, you are mistaken, I would never do anything to hurt you, never dream of hurting you.”
“I bet it came as quite a disappointment when you learned the General Min would not be here as well, didn’t it?” Su’s voice was iron.
They had reached the doors and stood before them, the flood of people trying to escape temporarily stopped by four large guards, their dagger axes blocking the way. Pai looked nervously within while Su looked hard at Pai.
“Why?” Su asked. “And tell it true, Pai. Wu warned me of you on the road, but I didn’t listen. Why?”
“Sire, I never-”
Pai wasn’t given a chance to finish. Su reached into his robes and pulled a dagger out in one swift motion, slamming it into Pai’s chest with another. Pai reeled back, surprise on his face, then fell into the doorway, his eyes wide and lifeless. Su kicked his body clear of the doors just as Dao An and Fei Lin rushed to them.
“Sire,” they both said as they looked from him to Pai’s body.
“Are you alright, Sire?” Dao asked.
Su looked at the two men hard before speaking. “How many nobles remain within?”
“More than a hundred,” Fei said. “They were all on the third level, the same as where the attacks were coming from. Many are still up there trying to get down.”
Su nodded then turned back to his guards, dozens more of whom now stood at his back. “Burn it.”
The guards nodded and several rushed away to gather torches and pitch.
“Sire, you cannot, there are still nobles in there,” Dao argued.
“I know,” Su replied, “and so are you.”
He pushed the two men back through the doorway and several of his guards slammed the doors shut.
“Burn it.” Su said again as he walked back through his guards, the rain falling all about him. “Burn them all.”
HISTORICAL NOTE
The Warring States period was a time of much bloodshed and barbarity. It might seem a bit much to have Su Xiong order all the nobles in the temple burned, and that would be correct. That was my own addition to events which actually took place.
Duke Dao was the ruler of the State of Chu, and his son was named Su. However, Dao was not a duke, but a king. I changed the titles myself because many other states had kings and it became difficult to keep track of them all, as you might have seen in the first book of the series.
Duke Dao did die, just not in battle. He ruled for twenty-one years and died in 381 BC. Duke Dao was given a funeral in the capital, and nobles did plot to assassinate him, although they weren’t Pai Fen and Dao An, who are two characters from my own imagination. I tried to put what I thought all the plotting and corrupt nobles were like into those two characters. Fei Lin gets it in the end as well because he represents the Daoist influence. It was true that they cried out against the warring actions of the state which came about through Wu Qi’s policy changes.
Those nobles got their wish and had bowmen in place at the funeral. Wu Qi was quick and managed to spot them. He rushed toward King Dao’s body and was killed in a rain of arrows. Many struck the dead duke, which greatly angered his son, who then ordered all of the nobles involved in the plot to be executed, as well as their families.
Wu Qi was indeed a real general who lived during the Warring States period. He was actually not from the State of Qi, but the State of Wey, one of the smaller states. He did serve in the Wei Army and was appointed to rule over Xihe, the area between the Luo and Yellow Rivers that the state had recently fought and won from the State of Qin. He also was forced into exile by the ruler of the State of Wei, which was led by Marquis Wu. The two men had developed a bad relationship somehow, although the reasons for this are unclear. The story of Meilin, the woman they both loved, is my own. There were rumors at the time, however, that Wu Qi did marry a noble’s daughter. The story then goes that he had her killed to make the ruler of the small State of Lu happy, which he was serving at the time.
After being exiled from the State of Wei, Wu Qi did make his way south to the State of Chu where Duke Dao did appoint him Prime Minister in 389 BC. He carried out all of the reforms in this book, as well as others. They changed the way the State of Chu operated and put it back into a powerful position. The nobles hated it, and they killed him for it.
Here are a few more interesting historical tidbits:
The Warring States, Books 1-3 Page 40